Post WW1

A. Recall: Prevailing Mores. At another level: the modernizing countries of Europe were becoming:

  1. Increasingly secular; often formally anti-cleric
  2. Legalistic --driven by the legal reforms of the Napoleonic Code [a revision of Roman Law] that was securely anchored in the recognition of private proverty and the value of procedures. On the continent that was a fairly homogenous legal structure that made it possible for Europeans to do business in neighboring countries.
  3. Skepticism about the role of government (opposed to kings; but also to dangers of social revolution) in economic affairs; capitalistic and market oriented. The Suez Canal company (like the "Chunnel") was an Anglo-French investment corporation that raised money on the Paris and London stockmarkets. Other joint and "private" enterprises built railroads in Argentina, laid cable around the world.
  4. Public benefits by supporting education:
    1. for science
    2. for technology and improved standard of living
    3. for citizenship
  5. Nationalistic. There was an arms race of massive proportions. The British and the Germans especially were pouring enormous sums into the development of their fleet --and they were damned expensive. National identity was closely tied to the pre-eminence of the naval establishment. Also true in the US, where Alfred Thayer Mahan's "the influence of sea-power on history" became the single most important [it is utterly unreadable!] book of the pre-war period. Relying on Mommsen's observation that "empire was shaped by the control of the sea". Patriotic societies were formed to support the navy [the White Fleet]; children contributed their lunch money to build battleships.
  6. Democratic. Perhaps not in an absolute sense, but certainly more democratic than non-European states, and certainly more liberal. Note that only in Europe could women study at an institution of higher learning. There is as darker side... as the voting franchise became more widely available, what would you predict will happen to the size of armies? Remember the dictum of your favorite Western Civ professor?

B. Language and higher culture: A new European elite that enjoyed intensive relations with elites of other countries. Knowledge of Latin and French to distinguish elite from lower orders (higher bourgeoisie). Europe on the eve of WW1. Keegan writes.  "Europe's educated classes held much of its culture in common, the art of the Italian renaissance...the classical revival in architecture...the primacy of Greek and Latin in the high schools, Homer, Thucydides, Caesar and Livy were set-books in all them (Central and Entente powers) and the study of the classics remained universal...the classical foundations stood, perhaps more securely than the Christian...the commonality of outlook preserved something recognizable as a single European culture." Not only this cultural unity, for all the royal families were related by ties of marriage! Indeed intermarriage among the elites was a common phenomenon (Americans also involved, note Jenny Jerome Churchill story, and the novel of Henry James.)

C. WW1 shattered this consensus. Indeed, after the carnage of the war many came to believe that the values described above were the root cause of the disaster.

Casualties in the Great War *)

Countries Total
Mobilized		 Killed
& Died 		Wounded Prisoners
& Missing 		Total
Casualties		 Casualties %
of Mobilized
Allied Powers            
Russia 12,000,000 1,700,000 4,950,000 2,500,000 9,150,000 76.3
France 8,410,000 1,357,800 4,266,000 537,000 6,160,800 76.3
British Empire 8,904,467 908,371 2,090,212 191,652 3,190,235 35.8
Italy 5,615,000 650,000 947,000 600,000 2,197,000 39.1
United States 4,355,000 126,000 234,300 4,500 364,800 8.2
Japan 800,000 300 907 3 1,210 0.2
Romania 750,000 335,706 120,000 80,000 535,706 71.4
Serbia 707,343 45,000 133,148 152,958 331,106 46.8
Belgium 267,000 13,716 44,686 34,659 93,061 34.9
Greece 230,000 5,000 21,000 1,000 17,000 11.7
Portugal 100,000 7,222 13,751 12,318 33,291 33.3
Montenegro 50,000 3,000 10,000 7,000 20,000 40.0
Total 42,188,810 5,152,115 12,831,004 4,121,090 22,104,209 52.3
Central Powers            
Germany 11,000,000 1,773,7000 4,216,058 1,152,800 7,142,558 64.9
Austria-Hungary 7,800,000 1,200,000 3,620,000 2,200,000 7,020,000 90.0
Turkey 2,850,000 325,000 400,000 250,000 975,000 34.2
Bulgaria 1,200,000 87,500 152,390 27,029 266,919 22.2
Total 22,850,000 3,386,200 8,388,448 3,629,829 15,404,477 67.4
Grand Total 65,038,810 8,538,315 21,219,452 7,750,919 37,508,686 57.6

C. The Consequences: a general skepticism that sustained, self-conscious, criticism in a public context could lead to a better world. Only the "enlightened" few could guarantee that.

  1. Social Revolution in Russia, fear thereof in Germany; most importantly a profound skepticism of capitalism, nationalism, democracy.
  2. Corresponding rise of Socialism [international, skeptical of capitalism; committed to state control] in many forms, from the more benigh Fabianism to extreme Bolschevism. Central planning [the government] would make it possible to provide for all needs. All that one needed was "enlightened" politicians to allocate resources and the world could move beyond imperialism, war, cut-throat economic competition.
  3. The fiscal collapse: precipated by: National debt to fund the war effort; further debt to restore the losses, support the wounded, etc. Governments borrowed against the indemnities they thought they would receive from Germany; when those failed, the fiscal system collapsed in the great depression
  4. Immediate consequence was the rise of fascism everywhere. Note: "national socialist German workers party" was the official name for the Nazis.

Science: The German juggernaught of university, government, science and industry remained the most potent. Consider the nobel prizes awarded in physics